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Differences Between Malay And Indonesian

Differences Between Malay And Indonesian

Orthography

Before the 20th century, Malay was written in a modified form of the Arabic alphabet known as Jawi. After the 20th century, Malay written with Roman letters, known as Rumi, has nearly completely replaced Jawi in everyday life. The romanisations originally used in Malaya (now part of Malaysia) and the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) reflected their positions as British and Dutch possessions respectively.

In Indonesia, the vowel in the English word ‘moon’ was formerly represented in Indonesian as oe, as in Dutch, and the official spelling of this sound was changed to u in 1947.

Similarly, until 1972, the initial consonant of the English ‘chin’ was represented in Malay as ch, whereas in Indonesian, it continued to follow Dutch and used tj. Hence the word for ‘grandchild’ used to be written as chuchu in Malay and tjoetjoe in Indonesian, until a unified spelling system was introduced in 1972 (known in Indonesia as Ejaan Yang Disempurnakan or the ‘Perfected Spelling’) which removed most differences between the two varieties: Malay ch and Indonesian tj became c: hence cucu.

Indonesian abandoned the spelling dj (for the consonant at the beginning of the word ‘Jakarta’) to conform to the j already in use in Malay, while the ancient Indonesian j for the semivowel at the beginning of the English ‘young’, was replaced with y as in Malay. Likewise, the velar fricative which occurs in many Arabic loanwords, which used to be written ‘ch’ in Indonesian, became kh in both languages.

But, oe was retained in some proper names, such as the name of the first President, Sukarno (written as Soekarno), and his successor Suharto, (written as Soeharto). The ch and dj letter combinations are still encountered in names such as Achmad and Djojo (pronounced as Akhmad and Joyo respectively), although the post-1972 spelling is now favoured.

Although the representations of speech sounds are now largely identical in the Indonesian and Malay varieties, a number of minor spelling differences remain, usually for historical reasons. For instance, the word for ‘money’ is written as wang in Malay, but uang in Indonesian, the word for ‘try’ is written as cuba in Malay, but coba in Indonesian, the word for ‘because’ is written as kerana in Malay, but karena in Indonesian, while the word for ‘cake’ is written as kuih in Malay, but kue in Indonesian.

Pronunciation

Pronunciation also tends to be very different, with East Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia speaking a dialect called Bahasa Baku,[citation needed] where the words are pronounced as spelt and enunciation tends to be clipped, staccato and quicker than the Malay spoken in the Malay Peninsula, which is spoken at a more languorous pace. Many vowels are pronounced (and were formerly spelt) differently in Peninsular Malaysia: tujuh is pronounced (and was spelt) tujoh, pilih as pileh, etc., and many final a’s tend to be pronounced as schwas.

Vocabulary

Vocabulary differences

Indonesian differs from Malay in having words of Javanese and Dutch origin, although Indonesian is based on Malay in Riau province (Bahasa Melayu Riau). For example, the word for ‘post office’ in Malay is “pejabat pos” (in Indonesian this means ‘post officer’), whereas in Indonesian it is “kantor pos”, from the Dutch word for office, kantoor. There are also some Portuguese influences: in Indonesian, Christmas is known as “Natal”, whereas Malay uses “Krismas”, derived from English. There are also instances where the Malay version derives from English pronunciation while the Indonesian version takes its cue from Latin. The Latin preference of the (older) Indonesian intellectuals in these instances may be ascribed to the influence of their classical-oriented education when Gymnasium schools were established during the Dutch colonial period : compare Malay kualiti, kuantiti, majoriti, minoriti and universiti with Indonesian kualitas, kuantitas, mayoritas, minoritas and universitas.

The relatively large share of Islamic (Arabic or Persian) loan words shared by Malay and Indonesian often poses no difficulty in comprehension and usage, although some forms may have developed a (slightly) different meaning or have become obsolete either in Malay or in Indonesian, e.g. , khidmat, wakil (see below).

English

Malay

Indonesian

account (bank,bills)

akaun

rekening (from Dutch)

accountant

akauntan

akuntan

iklan (also used in Indonesian)

reklame (from Dutch)

after

selepas

lepas, setelah (also used in Malay to indicate consecutive actions)

afternoon

tengah hari

sore (can also refer to the evening); petang (less frequent)

agent

ejen, agen (in science term)

agen

airport

lapangan terbang

(lit. field/expanse + to glide)

bandara (from bandar udara, lit. port+air), lapangan terbang (used for air force base)

apartment

pangsapuri, rumah pangsa, rumah kondo (only for ‘condominium’)

apartemen, rumah susun

The Options To Learn Spanish For Beginners

The Options To Learn Spanish For Beginners

As most adults who have tried to learn another language other than their own will tell you, tackling the project can be quite hard. While children seem to effortlessly adopt another language, the stumbling blocks can be enormous in the adult brain. For many people, learning Spanish is a necessary and well loved choice. To learn Spanish for beginners, the choices of instruction are extensive.

Initially, the best way to learn Spanish for beginners is to buy a simple English/Spanish dictionary. This will help you in translating words from English to Spanish and vice versa. Start by choosing commonplace objects from around the house and translating them into Spanish. The key here is practice. Practice, practice, practice. Refer to the object using the Spanish word only and keep doing it until you are comfortable. The fantastic thing about these dictionaries is that most of them come in pocket sized versions; making them the perfect portable tool to take along with you should you visit a Spanish speaking country.

Another way to learn Spanish for beginners is to embrace the technology that has flooded the marketplace. There are Spanish instruction CDs that consumers can simply listen to while driving, working, playing, or shopping. These act much like dictionaries but provide the proper pronunciation of words which can be enormously helpful. DVDs offer classroom instruction that consumers can watch over and over again as necessary. And portable electronic devices offer all the help of a dictionary but with audio. For instance, if you enter a word in English, such a device will say it back to you in Spanish.

Last but not least to learn Spanish for beginners, enlist the help of someone who speaks Spanish fluently. Find a friend or an acquaintance who will help you learn the basics. Or sign up for any number of classes offered at high schools and colleges at night where you can learn the fundamentals of this language.

In this modern day of advancement, it is often much simpler to learn Spanish for beginners. Gone are the days of endless toiling over books in a classroom. The modern world offers a variety of choices for students on the go in learning this gorgeous language.

The Options To Learn Spanish For Beginners

The Options To Learn Spanish For Beginners

More about Bible Software and a List of Bible CDs

More about Bible Software and a List of Bible CDs

Bible Software is a computer program that contains the actual contents of the book version. It is used for studying and reading the bible. The available sfotware packages have a large number of capabilities and features that merely displays the text of the Bible translation on a wide screen, while others include a wide range of theological resources.

Bible Software packages can include numerous different bible translations in different commentaries, languages, lexicons and maps, charts, theological writings, cross references as well as language aids like grammars, dictionaries and original language texts. Some Bible Software allows the users to select from a large number of different base packages that contains different resources and then downloaded or bought needed additional resources.

Usual features include Bible searching and reading, while several software offer features such as gospel synopsis, syntactical and morphological searches of original texts, note taking, sentence diagramming, dynamic and manual highlighting along with lectionary viewers. The initial advantage computers have over the printed Bible study materials and tools are the speed because they could research a large number of texts quickly.

The first bible programs were more on basic electronic concordances and useful for finding where certain words are located at the King James Bible. Nowadays, computers developed their ability to handle foreign language fonts such as Greek, Hebrew and English. There are also a lot of available bible software for Windows, Mac OS, Linux and Unix, PalmOS, WinCe, Android, iPhone and iPod touch Java and Browser Access.

List of Bible CDs

Bible Study Library CD-ROM Logos Bible Software 3

This CD has perfect tools for small group leaders, youth leaders or Sunday school teachers. It gives you the tools to really dig into the topics in the Bible and come away with understanding whether it is for making a lesson for your next group study.

This CD comes with more than 150 Bible reference titles. It is featured with several relevant articles, organizing content around your collecting materials, topics and generating reports tailored to your specific study. The price of this CD-ROM is 194 US dollars.

PalmOne Zondervan NIV Study Bible CD

This CD provides theological, historical and cultural insights. The set contains 5 public domain Bible translations such as King James, Darby’s New Translations, American Standard Version, World English Bible and Young’s Literal Translation.

It takes advantage of useful study features such as the ability to highlight, add bookmark, add annotations, and to jump to another translation or jump to specific verse. The CD features in-depth study notes, daily devotions and daily reading plans. Moreover, the CD has Getting Started Manual and Mobile Software Card. The average price of this product is about 10 to 15 US dollars

Power Bible CD

This simple-to-use CD is for Christian bible studies. The CD features floating cross references, a lesson editor, quick bible searches and floating strong definitions that can help you get most of your bible study time. The CD contains 22 bible references, more than 10 bible dictionaries, over 20 commentaries, more than 10 tropical references and 700,000 cross-references. The price of this CD is 19 US dollars including postage.

Bible Study Library CD-ROM

This CD-ROM comes has more than 170 bible reference titles. It is perfect for small group leaders, personal bible study or anyone interested in getting into the word. It is simple-to-use, just enter the passage and click to go. The price is about 20 US Dollars.

The Strength and Power of the Atom is a Sign of God

The Strength and Power of the Atom is a Sign of God

You breathe air made up of atoms, eat foods composed of atoms and drink water made up of atoms—with a body that itself consists of atoms. The objects you see around you are really nothing more than photons striking the electrons belonging to the atoms in your eyes.

And what about the things you touch and feel? Those too—hard and soft, rough and smooth, cold or hot—consist of the atoms in your skin interacting on the atoms in those external objects.

Many people, of course, know that their bodies, the Earth, the galaxies—in small the entire universe—consists of nothing but tiny atoms. But they may still never have thought about the system and solidity in the basic building blocks of matter that we call “atoms.”

The fact is, but, that human beings live in the closest possible proximity to this flawless arrangement throughout the course of their lives. So splendid is this system that each one of the trillions of atoms that comprise the chair you sit in possesses an order and a complexity about which an entire book could be written. And under natural conditions, failing a major intervention, that matchless order will persist without ever suffering any impairment.

Internal Order Inside the Atom

Every atom consists of a nucleus and electrons that revolve around the nucleus at a considerable distance away.

Electrons are particles that revolve around their own axes, and also around the nucleus itself—just as the Earth revolves on its own axis every 24 hours, during its year-long orbit around the Sun. Just like the planets, this revolution we refer to as the electron’s orbit takes place according to an enormous precision and without ever stopping.

Up to dozens of electrons, that revolve and spin in an area too small to be seen with even the most powerful microscopes, make heavy traffic inside the atom. The most vitally vital point here is how these electrons, which surround the nucleus just like a swarm of satellites, never give rise to even the smallest accident. For even the smallest mishap within the atom might have terrible consequences. Yet no accident ever occurs; all functioning continues in a perfect order, flawlessly. Electrons, which revolve around the nucleus at the unimaginable speed of 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) a second, never collide with one another. The way that these electrons, all identical to one another, maintain their own separate paths is quite astonishing.

Various questions—of why identical electrons have different orbits around the nucleus, how they follow their orbits without ever straying, and how they avoid colliding with one another while traveling at fantastic speeds in such unbelievably minute spaces—all lead us to a single point. The sole truth that confronts us in this matchless order and fine balance is God’s immaculate creation. In one verse, our Lord tells us:

You see the mountains you reckoned to be solid going past like clouds—the handiwork of God Who gives to everything its solidity. He is aware of what you do. (Qur’an, 27:88)

As this verse tells us, the atom behaves as it does because God gave it its solidity. The Arabic word of the phrase translated here as “give solidity” is atqana, which means to arrange or dispose of things to obtain the most perfect result. The electrons within the atom constantly revolve in the perfect manner, in the paths that God has arranged for them—again as the verse informs us. Never do they stray, even to the slightest degree. Furthermore, when we consider the universe, we see that everything composed of matter gradually decays over the course of time, is worn down by external factors, erodes, breaks down and becomes impaired. Yet no such corruption is ever observed in the atom—aside from in nuclear reactions (fission and fusion, which we’ll discuss shortly) carried out through deliberate, artificial interventions. As our Lord tells us in the verse, the atom has been made to be perfectly solid.

The Awesome Power in the Atomic Nucleus

Atom nuclei consist of protons and neutrons. But what is the force that binds together these particles comprising the nucleus? The so-called “strong nuclear force,” the most powerful force that has yet been described by the laws of physics, holds the atomic nuclei together.

This force keeps the protons and neutrons in the nucleus together without dispersing. So powerful is this force that it enables the protons and neutrons in the nucleus to literally adhere to one another, yet keeps the protons and neutrons separate and apart from one another. If this force had any more binding power, the protons and neutrons would combine with one another, and were it any less, they would all spin away and the atom would disintegrate.

When this attractive force in the nucleus is released, the atom is “split” and the awesome power known as nuclear energy results. As the number of protons and neutrons grows, so does the size of the nucleus, as does the magnitude of the force that binds these particles together.

In the larger nuclei, it becomes exceedingly hard to release this energy that binds the protons and neutrons together. As the particles separate from one another, they attempt to come back together with a greater force, just like a spring. This force is approximately 1038 times greater than gravity—in other words, a hundred billion, billion, billion, billion times greater. So long as it is not interfered with, this energy does no harm. Yet with human intervention, it can assume a power capable of killing millions of people.

The Maintenance of the Force in the Nucleus

This extraordinary force in the atom’s nucleus, sufficiently powerful in the aggregate to endanger the lives of millions, is released by way of two different atomic reactions. The reaction known as fission results from the division or splitting of the atomic nucleus, while fusion is the combining of two separate nuclei under enormous force. In both types of reaction, a tremendous quantity of energy is released.

During early experiments with fission, scientists bombarded the nucleus of uranium-235 with neutrons at very high speed—and found themselves confronted by a most fascinating state of affairs. After the neutron had been absorbed by the uranium atom’s nucleus, it became highly unstable. There was now a difference in the numbers of protons and neutrons in the nucleus, making an imbalance. Therefore, to resolve that imbalance, the nucleus starts splitting apart, emitting a specific level of energy as well as the particles contained within it, at very high speeds.

Scientists aimed the moving neutron in such a way as to strike one of the nuclei in the uranium atoms. All that’s required is for one of the atomic nuclei in that mass of uranium-235 to split asunder. During such splitting, each nucleus releases an average of two or three neutrons, which strike other nuclei in turn, initiating a chain reaction by striking other uranium nuclei.

Each newly split uranium nucleus behaves just like the first one. A series of nuclear splits or fissions thus takes place. And since a very large number of uranium nuclei are split, an extraordinary level of energy is released as a result.

It is this splitting of the U-235 nuclei that led to the tragedies of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, costing the lives of tens of thousands of civilians. But since the Earth, the entire atmosphere and our very bodies all consist of atoms, what prevents all these atoms from entering into just such a reaction? What prevents catastrophes like those at Hiroshima and Nagasaki taking place anywhere, at any time?

Bearing in mind that some 100 trillion atoms can fit onto the head of a pin, you can easily appreciate how any impairment to the stable structure of one single atom could lead to a similar chain reaction. That being the case, what prevents such a nuclear reaction that could very quickly obliterate the whole universe?

Neutrons have been made in such a way that when moving about in a free state in nature—that is, independent of an atomic nucleus—they undergo a process known as beta decay. Because of this, one seldom encounters a free neutron in nature, and then only for a very limited duration. For that reason, the neutrons to be used in nuclear reactions are released by artificial means.

God, the Creator of this flawless order, the Creator of the entire universe, has perfected all things. As revealed in verse 100 of Surah Yusuf, “… My Lord is Subtle in what He wills. He is indeed All-Knowing and All-Wise.” God has made the atom together with the awesome power contained within it, and He keeps that force under control in an extraordinary way. Our Lord has made the atom with a system that can never go awry in its natural state. Although everything in the universe is eventually exposed to decay, the atom maintains its solidity. The nucleus and the electrons that revolve around it at such an unimaginable speed show us this sound creation and matchless dominion of God’s.

Atomic Energy and Nuclear Fission: A Miracle of the Qur’an

God is He Who splits the seed and kernel. He brings forth the living from the dead, and produces the dead out of the living. That is God, so how are you perverted? (Qur’an, 6:95)

The terms “seed” (alhabbi) and “kernel” (annawa) in the above verse may also indicate the splitting of the atom. Indeed, the dictionary meanings of annawa include “nucleus, center, atomic

ECTACO ER850 first look rus

in russian
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The main characteristics of good academic writing in English, language discourse functions, and challenges that Arab students face

The main characteristics of excellent academic writing in English, language discourse functions, and challenges that Arab students face

Written by

Abdel Rahman Mitib Altakhaineh

MA student, Applied Linguistics, University of Salford, UK.

2010

Contents

1 Introduction

2 What is “academic writing”

3 The main characteristics of “excellent academic writing”

3.1. Organisation

3.2 . Task achievement / Relevance to Question (title)

3.3 . Accuracy

3.4 . Range and style

3.5 . Coherence and cohesion

3.6 . Appropriateness and referencing

4 The role that language discourse functions have in “academic writing”

4.1 Description

4.2 Definition

4.3 Narrative

4.4 Cause and effect

4.5 Comparison and contrast

4.6 Argument

4.7 Exemplification

4.8 Classification

5 The challenges that might arise from such characteristics and functions for Arab students

5.1. Punctuation and spelling

5.2. Misuse of words

5.3. Misuse of tense and omitting of the verb (to be)

5.4. Task achievement and Repetition

5.5. Referencing

5.6. Electronic illiteracy

6 Conclusion

References

1. Introduction

Many students and researchers are still confused about how to write excellent academic papers of various different kinds in English. Academic writing must be distinguished from other formal styles of writing such as official and business as stated by Jordan (1986 p. 18). The main characteristics of “excellent academic writing” have been the focus of much debate in the general field of writing skills, as have the significance of language discourse functions and the vital role that they play when it comes to producing “excellent academic writing”. This essay will define what “academic writing” is and identify the main characteristics of “excellent academic writing”. The ultimate aim of this essay will be to analyse the role that language discourse functions have in such texts and give suggestions on how to overcome the challenges that might arise from such characteristics and functions for non-native speakers of English.

2. What is “academic writing?”

First of all, we must define what “academic writing” is to identify its features. Jordan (1999, p. states that “academic writing” must be written in a proper formal style.Hamp-Lyons and Poole (2006, p. 16-17) also define “academic writing” in terms of formality. They state that academic writing is a formal piece of paper for which credit has to be given to the writer and that the work will contain specific grammatical patterns, organisation and argument.They outline the formality of academic writing suggesting it comes from its readers who must be academics. Its contents that must be a serious thought and it should be constructed using a variety of complex grammatical structures which have no errors. The vocabulary utilised should be varied and of a technical level appropriate to the subject matter. This will be discussed further in Section 3.

Moreover, Anderson and Poole (2001, p. 9) focus on defining the problem in academic writing. They assert that the first step must be to define the problem which involves determining what is being questioned in the question or the title.

As mentioned before, I can summarise that Academic writing can be defined as the way that we express our thoughts, knowledge and information clearly in terms of discussing an academic problem. It must address a topic or title clearly. It has some characteristics that must be addressed in the text such as accuracy, organisation, argument, coherence, cohesion, appropriateness and referencing. These characteristics help the reader to know the academic problem in a crucial way by discussing many points of view relating to it.

3. The main characteristics of “excellent academic writing”

There are many characteristics of “excellent academic writing”. Many researchers such as Anderson and Poole (2001), Jordan (1986, 1999), Hamp-Lyons and Heasley (2006), Treciak (2000), Greetham (2001), Brown and Hood (1998) and Carter (1999) discuss those features in different ways. I have outlined the main characteristics under the following sub-headings:

3.1. Organisation

When we talk about organisation in academic writing, we really need to focus on a clear introduction, body and conclusion. The progression of thoughts and paragraphing must be clear and supported with examples. We also have to present a reasonable number of alternative points of view and to achieve a sense of argumentation.

Greetham (2001, p. 182-202) focuses on the importance of the introduction, paragraphs and conclusion that must be clear and coherent. He thinks that the introduction is a key part in which the writer must interpret the title or question and tell the readers the map that they are going to follow through the piece of writing.

He also emphasises that the paragraphs, which are in the main body of the academic writing, must follow the map the writer outlined in the introduction. He recommends that the writer should have a topic sentence for each paragraph which gives the reader a brief description about what is going to follow. Regarding conclusions, Greetham (2001 p. 197) says:

“The opinions you express in the conclusion must reflect the strength and balance of the arguments that have preceded them in the body of the essay.”

Anderson and Poole (2001, p. 17) suggest that we should have an introduction, body and conclusion. They believe that the introduction has to start with an obvious statement of the problem and provide the readers with all essential data that is to follow. Anderson and Poole (2001, p. 17) argue that the body “should be an attempt at a progressive solution to the problem stated in the introduction”.They believe that the conclusion should present the results of the investigation and provide a solution to the problem that has been set. Furthermore, the conclusion can be used to suggest further areas of investigation.

Although both Greetham (2001) and Anderson and Poole (2001) generally emphasise the significance of organisation in the academic text at the same level, I strongly agree with Anderson and Poole especially in terms of having an argument in the body. I feel that academic writing is made to have an argument that must be developed throughout the body especially at postgraduate humanities level. I also believe that examples play an vital role to convince the readers with your point of view.

3.2. Task achievement /Relevanceto Question (title)

In academic writing, your work must be directly relevant to the title. You have to approach the task in a direct and efficient way. The development of the argument must be relevant, accurate and appropriate.

Davies (2008) believes that successful academic writing must address a topic or title clearly. He suggests that writers must be careful what information they include in the essay noting that “fascinating information” may not necessarily be orientated towards the question that is being questioned. When doing a final review of your work, it is vital to focus on the relationships between the thoughts that have been discussed.

In addition, online resources can be invaluable in order to provide brilliant definitions of key words such as analyse, define, criticize, discuss, describe, clarify, justify, illustrate and many more.

3.3. Accuracy

In accuracy, we have to have high standards of grammar, word choice, vocabulary, spelling and punctuation.

Brown and Hood (1998, pp. 26-34) believe that spelling and punctuation are writing sub-skills. Therefore, they provide many examples, exercises and strategies to avoid having mistakes that generally cause confusion. For example, the use of comma in the following statements changes the meaning as shown below:

“1.The passengers, who travelled early, were killed in the accident. (It means all passengers)

2. The passengers who travelled early were killed in the accident. (It means only some passengers)” (Altakhaineh, 2008, p. 135).

In addition, Jordan (1986, pp. 10-18) also provides many examples and exercises that reveal the importance of grammar, vocabulary, spelling and punctuation. The misuse of tenses changes the meaning and spelling mistakes causes confusion. I do not reckon it is the reader’s job to guess what words the writer chose. He also distinguishes the differences between some verbs lead to confusion such as ‘lend’ and ‘borrow’, ‘rise’, ‘arise’, ‘raise’ and ‘increase’, ‘make’ and ‘do’ and ‘say’ and ‘tell’ as a part of taking care of word choice and the use of words.

3.4. Range and style

It is vital to show a excellent range of vocabulary and sentence structures and to avoid repetition. The message should be clear to follow without effort on the part of the reader by using a excellent style.

In my experience, the use of limited vocabulary and inadequate sentences structures are a sign of a writer’s weakness. In addition, repetition can appear awkward and inappropriate in English as compared to some other languages such as Arabic.

In terms of style, Davies (2008) mentions five constituents for “excellent style” which I have summarised

Chinese language

Chinese language

Spoken Chinese

Main article: Spoken Chinese

A map below depicts the linguistic subdivisions (“languages” or “dialect groups”) within China itself. The traditionally-recognized seven main groups, in order of population size are:

Name

Abbreviation

Pinyin

Local Romanization

Simp.

Trad.

Total

Speakers

Mandarin

Notes: includes Standard Mandarin

Guan;
Gunhu

Pinyin: Gunhu

c. 850 million

Bifnghu

Pinyin: Bifnghu

Wu

Notes: includes Shanghainese

Wu;
Wy

Long-small: Ng nyiu

c. 90 million

Yue

Notes: includes Cantonese & Taishanese

Yue;
Yuy

Jyutping: Jyut6 jyu5;

Yale: Yuht yh

c. 80 million

Min

Notes: includes Taiwanese & Teochew

Min;
Mny

POJ: Bn g;

BUC: Mng ng

c. 50 million

Xiang

Xiang;
Xingy

Romanization: Shien’

c. 35 million

Hakka

Kejia;
Kjihu

Hakka Pinyin: Hak-k-fa or Hak-k-va

c. 35 million

Khu

Hakka Pinyin: Hak-fa or Hak-va

Gan

Gan;
Gny

Romanization: Gon

c. 20 million

Disputed classifications by some Chinese linguists:

Name

Abbreviation

Pinyin

Local Romanization

Simp.

Trad.

Total

Speakers

Jin

Notes: from Mandarin

Jin;
Jny

None

45 million

Huizhou

Notes: from Wu

Hui;
Huzhuhu

None

~3.2 million

Pinghua

Notes: from Cantonese

Ping;
Gungx Pnghu

None

~5 million

There are also some smaller groups that are not yet classified, such as: Danzhou dialect (), spoken in Danzhou, on Hainan Island; Xianghua (), not to be confused with Xiang (), spoken in western Hunan; and Shaozhou Tuhua (), spoken in northern Guangdong. The Dungan language, spoken in Central Asia, is very closely related to Mandarin. But, it is not generally considered “Chinese” since it is written in Cyrillic and spoken by Dungan people outside China who are not considered ethnic Chinese. See List of Chinese dialects for a comprehensive listing of individual dialects within these large, broad groupings.

In general, the above language-dialect groups do not have sharp boundaries, though Mandarin is the predominant Sinitic language in the North and the Southwest, and the rest are mostly spoken in Central or Southeastern China. Frequently, as in the case of the Guangdong province, native speakers of major variants overlapped. As with many areas that were linguistically diverse for a long time, it is not always clear how the speeches of various parts of China should be classified. The Ethnologue lists a total of 14, but the number varies between seven and seventeen depending on the classification scheme followed. For instance, the Min variety is often divided into Northern Min (Minbei, Fuchow) and Southern Min (Minnan, Amoy-Swatow); linguists have not determined whether their mutual intelligibility is small enough to sort them as separate languages.

In general, mountainous South China displays more linguistic diversity than the flat North China. In parts of South China, a major city’s dialect may only be marginally intelligible to close neighbours. For instance, Wuzhou is about 120 miles upstream from Guangzhou, but its dialect is more like Standard Cantonese spoken in Guangzhou, than is that of Taishan, 60 miles southwest of Guangzhou and separated by several rivers from it (Ramsey, 1987).

Standard Mandarin and diglossia

Main article: Standard Mandarin

Putonghua / Guoyu, often called “Mandarin”, is the official standard language used by the People’s Republic of China, the Republic of China, and Singapore (where it is called “Huayu”). It is based on the Beijing dialect, which is the dialect of Mandarin as spoken in Beijing. The government intends for speakers of all Chinese speech varieties to use it as a common language of communication. Therefore it is used in government agencies, in the media, and as a language of instruction in schools.

In mainland China and Taiwan, diglossia has been a common feature: it is common for a Chinese to be able to speak two or even three varieties of the Sinitic languages (or ialects) together with Standard Mandarin. For example, in addition to putonghua a resident of Shanghai might speak Shanghainese and, if they did not grow up there, his or her local dialect as well. A native of Guangzhou may speak Standard Cantonese and putonghua, a resident of Taiwan, both Taiwanese and putonghua/guoyu. A person living in Taiwan may commonly mix pronunciations, phrases, and words from Standard Mandarin and Taiwanese, and this mixture is considered normal under many circumstances. In Hong Kong, Standard Mandarin is beginning to take its place beside English and Standard Cantonese, the official languages.

Linguistics

Main article: Identification of the varieties of Chinese

Linguists often view Chinese as a language family, though owing to China’s socio-political and cultural situation, and the fact that all spoken varieties use one common written system, it is customary to refer to these generally mutually unintelligible variants as “the Chinese language”. The diversity of Sinitic variants is comparable to the Romance languages.

From a purely descriptive point of view, “languages” and “dialects” are simply arbitrary groups of similar idiolects, and the distinction is irrelevant to linguists who are only concerned with describing regional speeches technically. But, the thought of a single language has major overtones in politics and cultural self-identity, and clarifies the amount of emotion over this issue. Most Chinese and Chinese linguists refer to Chinese as a single language and its subdivisions dialects, while others call Chinese a language family.

Chinese itself has a term for its unified writing system, Zhongwen (), while the closest equivalent used to describe its spoken variants would be Hanyu (, poken language[s] of the Han Chinese)his term could be translated to either anguage or anguages since Chinese possesses no grammatical numbers. In the Chinese language, there is much less need for a uniform speech-and-writing continuum, as indicated by two separate character morphemes yu and wen. Ethnic Chinese often consider these spoken variations as one single language for reasons of nationality and as they inherit one common cultural and linguistic heritage in Classical Chinese. Han native speakers of Wu, Min, Hakka, and Cantonese, for instance, may consider their own linguistic varieties as separate spoken languages, but the Han Chinese race as onelbeit internally very diversethnicity. To Chinese nationalists, the thought of Chinese as a language family may suggest that the Chinese identity is much more fragmentary and disunified than it really is and as such is often looked upon as culturally and politically provocative. Additionally, in Taiwan, it is closely associated with Taiwanese independence, where some supporters of Taiwanese independence promote the local Taiwanese Minnan-based spoken language.

Within the People Republic of China and Singapore, it is common for the government to refer to all divisions of the Sinitic language(s) beside Standard Mandarin as fangyan (egional tongues, often translated as ialects). Modern-day Chinese speakers of all kinds communicate using one formal standard written language, although this modern written standard is modeled after Mandarin, generally the modern Beijing dialect.

Language and nationality

The term sinophone, coined in analogy to anglophone and francophone, refers to those who speak the Chinese language natively, or prefer it as a medium of communication. The term is derived from Sinae, the Latin word for ancient China.

Written Chinese

Main article: Written Chinese

Chinese characters evolved over time from earlier forms of hieroglyphs. The thought that all Chinese characters are either pictographs or ideographs is an erroneous one: most characters contain phonetic parts, and are composites of phonetic components and semantic radicals. Only the simplest characters, such as ren (human), ri (sun), shan (mountain), shui (water), may be wholly pictorial in origin. In 100 CE, the famed scholar X Shn in the Hn Dynasty classified characters into six categories, namely pictographs, simple ideographs, compound ideographs, phonetic loans, phonetic compounds and derivative characters. Of these, only 4% were categorized as pictographs, and 8090% as phonetic complexes consisting of a semantic element that indicates meaning, and a phonetic element that indicates the pronunciation. Generally, the phonetic element is more accurate and more vital than the semantic one.[citation needed] There are about 214 radicals recognized in the Kangxi Dictionary.

Modern characters are styled after the standard script ( kish) (see styles, below). Various other written styles are also used in East Asian calligraphy, including seal script ( zhunsh), cursive script ( cosh) and clerical script ( lsh). Calligraphy artists can write in traditional and simplified characters, but tend to use traditional characters for traditional art.

Various styles of Chinese calligraphy.

There are currently two systems for Chinese characters. The traditional system, still used in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macau and Chinese speaking communities (except Singapore and Malaysia) outside mainland China, takes its form from standardized character forms dating back to the late Han dynasty. The Simplified Chinese character system, developed by the People’s Republic of China in 1954 to promote mass literacy, simplifies most complex traditional glyphs to fewer strokes, many to common caoshu shorthand variants.

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Getting A Kanji Tattoo

Getting A Kanji Tattoo

Kanji was originated from Chinese Characters.

Kanji is the term for Chinese characters that are used in the Japanese language. There are two different types of characters that are used in written Japanese: kana, which includes the types of writing known as hiragana and katakana, and kanji. All written Japanese evolved from written Chinese, and were modified to make the different sounds of the Japanese language. Kanji in Japanese are typically characters from the Chinese language that have been adapted to mean Japanese words. The meanings in Chinese and Japanese can be the same but pronounced differently, or they may have entirely different meanings. Some kanji were developed in Japan and are not seen in the Chinese language at all. Still other kanji are written in different forms but have the same meaning.

Japanese Kanji Tattoos VS Chinese Symbol Tattoos.

The Kanji Tattoos you have seen in the tattoo parlor or anywhere else are really Chinese Symbol Tattoos, when you are plotting to get a Kanji Tattoo, Choosing Chinese Symbol Tattoos instead of Japanese Kanji Tattoos, Why? Japanese Kanji only have hundreds of writing symbols which evolved from written Chinese Symbols, You can not get whatever you want to express by using Japanese Kanji. Whereas, Chinese Symbols have about 4000 year history and there are 47,035 Chinese symbols in Chinese Kangxi Dictionary. Place it simple, You can get whatever you want to express in Chinese symbols.

How to Get a perfect Kanji Tattoo you truly deserve?

My Name is Yingying, I am a Chinese tattoo artist, and have been helping the western people get their Kanji tattoos for three years. Kanji have a complex beauty as well as individual meanings. People who get Kanji tattoos are often drawn to this. Unfortunately, the flip-side is that there are a lot of Kanji tattoo Mistakes. I have personally seen such elementary mistakes as Kanji being tattooed backward and meant something else other than intended. My goal is to help people explore the beauty and complexity of Kanji safe in the knowledge that they are dealing with the professional. Why many western people make mistakes with their kanji tattoos, the main reason is because they made no preparation before inking and just walked into a tattoo parlor without knowing what they would get. And then their Chinese tattoos became the permanent source to embarrass them. Yes, they can get their tattoo removed, but removing unwanted tattoos is a very expensive, lengthy and painful ordeal! You are wise to research your best possible options before going through with it.

First: you need to find a pro to do the translation, instead of anyone who speaks Chinese. The Chinese symbol (Kanji) has a time span of 4000 years and a geography span across countries like China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan. It simply takes knowledge and expertise to do the translation well.

Second: the Chinese Symbols need to be custom designed by writing them into Chinese calligraphy. Your body deserves Chinese calligraphy art, NOT kanji writing! Chinese calligraphy is not just Chinese kanji writing, neither just writing well. It is an art that can show spirits. People can feel the mood, feeling, thought from the calligraphy. Having a Chinese calligraphy tattoo is a like and a respect of yourself. Moreover, Custom designed kanji Tattoos also include stencil outline. Most people don’t realize that every tattoo design has a matching stencil. To apply tattoos on the skin, the tattoo artist needs both a excellent clear reference of the actual design, and well drawn stencils (line drawings) as the “blueprint” for the actual tattoo. When inking, your tattoo artist will use stencil outlines to trace the artwork onto your body. Stencil outlines are vital for inking kanji as it can prevent tattooists from making mistakes while inking.

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Getting A Kanji Tattoo